ST. PAUL, MN – FEBRUARY 17: Darcy Kuemper #35 of the Minnesota Wild is interviewed after recording his first career NHL win against the Detroit Red Wings on February 17, 2013 at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)

Jason Zucker is very fast and has a good shot. But don’t take my word for it. Ask Jason, who quickly will confirm that, yes, it’s all true. The kid doesn’t lack confidence.

That said, he probably wasn’t the most important call-up on the ice during the Wild’s 3-2 victory over Detroit. While Zucker supplied the flash with a beauty of a goal in the second period, it was another recently promoted Houston Aero who backboned the Wild’s effort.

“I just hope my parents were watching because they didn’t think I was playing,” said goaltender Darcy Kuemper, fresh off his first NHL victory.

Well, none of us thought he was playing. Even Kuemper was shocked when coach Mike Yeo pointed a finger toward the net and told him to get in there. But Nik Backstrom became ill and late during warm-ups decided that he couldn’t go. Hello, Darcy Kuemper.

“It happened quick,” noted Kuemper.

Kuemper, a sixth-round draft choice in 2009, was called up last week to replace Josh Harding. He made his NHL debut in Vancouver and stopped 28 of 30 shots in a 2-1 loss. He’s been practicing and fantasizing about getting his first NHL victory ever since. But he didn’t expect to get an opportunity against the vaunted Red Wings.

“I found out with about five minutes left in warm-ups,” he said. “It was good in the sense that it didn’t even give me time to get nervous. But I didn’t get a lot of shots in during warm-ups so I was still trying to feel for it a little bit at the start of the game. I kicked out a few bad rebounds.”

A couple of those rebounds went all the way out to the blue line. This looked like trouble.

“Yeah, when you’re cold, there’s a lot more rebounds,” Kuemper said. “It’s a lot harder to control it because you’re not picking up the puck as quick.”

The Red Wings moved out to a 2-0 lead very early in the second period. Kuemper got better as the game moved along, however. He started to get into a rhythm. After a while, he was handling the puck with ease. He stopped 29 of 31 shots and was outstanding during a Detroit four-minute power play. And afterward, he was all smiles in front of his locker as he watched the media mob his old pal from Houston, Zucker.

“There are a lot of familiar faces around here,” Kuemper said. “It keeps me a bit looser. Having them in the room gives me some sense of home almost.”

Another Houston buddy, Johan Larsson made his Wild debut against Detroit. And Mikael Granlund and Jonas Brodin also are former teammates from the Aeros.

“We throw (Kuemper) into a pretty difficult situation and the way he responded was terrific,” Yeo said. “That was pretty impressive. I thought he got better as the game went on. I thought he was huge in that four-minute penalty kill for us.”

A forward or a defenseman can jump in there at the last minute without much problem. But a goaltender has to be mentally prepared to face death and destruction. Kuemper settled in and earned his first NHL victory.

“It’s awesome, something you’ve been waiting for your whole life,” he said. “You dream of it as a kid. To get it against such a good team, it’s pretty exciting. They’ve been good for a lot of years.”

Meanwhile, the Wild scored three goals in a span of about four minutes in the second period. Oooooh, offense! Ahhhhh. The spectators were ecstatic.

This is what’s been missing from hockey since, oh, 1986. It was a bona fide scoring burst that thrilled Minnesota fans. For those few minutes, anything seemed possible. There might have been a new intergalactic record established for odd-man rushes in a short span.

And odd men scored. Torrey Mitchell, for example, finally scored his first as a member of the Wild. Zucker scored his first-ever NHL goal. He burst in on a two-on-one with Devin Setoguchi. Now, normally a new kid passes to the veteran in this situation. Not Zucker, who ripped one past goaltender Petr Mrazek.

“Looking at Devin Setoguchi on that side, it was, ‘I got to pass it, I got to pass it, I got to pass it …’ ” Zucker said. “And then their D-man played the two-on-one and he played the pass and that just opened up a shot. For me, I have a shoot-first mentality.”

All in all, it was a good night to be at Xcel as the Houston Aeros — I mean the Minnesota Wild — won.

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